The Goonies
Our parents they want the best of stuff for us but right now they gotta do what’s right for them cause it’s their time. Their time up there. Down here it’s our time. Our time down here.
We’ve made it to the last film of my summer series, and I’ve decided to end with a cult classic and one of the highest-grossing films of 1985, The Goonies. The Goonies has spoken to generations of children, and even as they’ve grown into adults, it has continued to resonate. Despite not really taking place during the summer, it was released in June and continues to make the lineup of many summer outdoor movie series. It shares the same adventurous nature as Stand By Me and also stars Corey Feldman, but it came out a year earlier and is far more light-hearted. Instead of dealing with dead bodies and trauma, we’re dealing with campy criminals and hidden treasure. Still, The Goonies has a special place in my heart, and I’m happy to close out my summer series with the film.
Childhood Adventure
Life for children is actually quite boring if you think about it. They're constantly under someone's supervision, and they don't have the freedom to come and go as they please. That's why children utilize their imagination so much. That's what makes being a kid so much fun. It's also why they're drawn to films like The Goonies, where a group of kids go on an adventure from which they would be constrained in real life. Movies like The Goonies are built upon childhood cravings to be free from supervision and restrictions. Adults who grew up with The Goonies, or even adults watching it for the first time, still resonate with it because they remember what it was like to be a child and because even in adulthood, we are still at the mercy of societal structures and laws.
It makes the movie more exciting that the parents are pretty absent. Though Mikey's mom appears in the beginning and all the parents appear at the end when the characters escape the tunnels, they're mostly absent and uninvolved throughout. The unsupervised adventure is the film's strong point. The kids are in an incredibly dangerous situation as a crime family is after them, and one of the sons is regularly shooting at the children with a gun. This is a pretty insane addition to a kids' movie. They're not just trying to prevent them from finding the treasure or getting them in trouble by capturing them, but they're genuinely trying to kill them, too. In reality, no child or adult would ever want to be in this situation, but because it's a movie, Hollywood makes it quite appealing.
“Goonies never say die,”-Mikey, The Goonies.
The ending plays into this childhood imagination-adventure as well. The characters are talking to the media about their experience when they see one-eyed Willy’s ship sail off into the distance. I love it when movies include a scene that seems like it wouldn’t be real but they never really clarify if it happened or if it was the characters’ imaginations; like in Grease when Danny and Sandy fly away into the sky in Greased Lightning. While one-eyed Willy may not have been a hero, the kids have great respect for him, and when they see his ship sail away, it’s like all their work not only saved them but also set him free to continue on with whatever escapades that are out in the ocean waiting for him.
Triumph Of The Underdog
There are a lot of prevalent themes in The Goonies: friendship, bravery, greed, and youth. However, at its core, it’s about a group of underdogs coming up on top, and because so many people feel that way in society, it’s one of the best themes a film can have. It’s inspiring and empowering, and because it’s a PG film that appeals to children, it’s incredibly powerful. No matter how much freedom parents give their children, kids always feel like underdogs because they’re still under the rules and supervision of adult figures.
At the beginning of the film, the villains are the developers who want to buy the property the characters live on and turn it into a country club. Because their parents are struggling financially, they can’t afford to fight the sale. When the goonies meet the Fratelli crime family, they now have new villains to fight off. In either scenario, they are the underdogs who ultimately come out on top. Even though Brand is Mikey’s older brother and is supposed to be the responsible chaperone, Mikey and his friends bring out his inner child, inspiring him to go along with them on their mission. Because he sees how hurt Mikey is by the potential of losing their home, and underneath, he feels it too; he’s also an underdog, even if he tries to act tough in the beginning.
Though the underdog of all underdogs in The Goonies is Sloth. Because of his appearance, he’s an outcast among his family. However, despite how he looks, he’s actually the only good member of the family. Of course, this teaches kids the age-old “never judge a book by its cover” message, but I think a lot more can be said about the relationship Sloth builds with Chunk. Chunk is somewhat of an outcast among his chosen family–the goonies. This is linked to his weight–there’s quite a lot of fat shaming that hasn’t aged well. It’s also because of his outlandish stories, like the one where he claimed Michael Jackson came to his house to use the bathroom. Chunk’s friends love him regardless, but it was smart storytelling to make Chunk the one to bond with Sloth because he would understand him best.
Though it may sound cliché, the friends come out on top in the end because they stuck together and they didn’t give up. I do think there is incredible power in sticking together, more so than we give credit for. For kids watching this movie growing up, this teaches them life skills of working together, something they’ll need to know when they’re older, whether at work or if they get married, and are trying to figure things out with their spouse like parenting or paying the bills. However, as a society, we have completely lost the ability to work together. I would credit irresponsible leaders with the current division in the world and the constant pinning of people up against each other based on opinions instead of hearing each other out and coming to a mutual understanding, which would then lead to a change in perspective.
“Look how far we’ve come. We’ve got a chance,”-Mikey, The Goonies.
There’s a powerful scene where everyone is tired, and they all want to go home, but Mikey’s inspiring monologue gets them to stay and continue on their journey to the treasure, resulting in their parents not having to sell their homes to the developers. The best part of the scene is that they listen to Mikey. They don’t interrupt him, and they don’t start yelling what they want to do in his face as he’s trying to tell them why staying is so important to him, but they listen, and they stick together. Great things have been accomplished in this world by sticking together: women’s rights, civil rights, lgbtq+ rights, or in situations like The Goonies, a group of kids escape a criminal family trying to kill them, and they use the treasure they find to help their families and save their homes.